Having lost the race to the moon, the Russians are clearly determined not to arrive second in other areas of space. Though last month's linkup of a manned spaceship with a larger unmanned vehicle was apparently marred by difficulties, it showed the keen Soviet interest in establishing the first earth-orbiting space station. The Russians are also aiming at more distant targets. Last week they launched a massive, 10,230-lb. spacecraft toward Mars.
The purpose of the six-month, 290,000,000-mile flight, the Soviets said, was to conduct scientific investigations of the Red Planet. But the great weight of the spacecraft immediately suggested the possibility that...
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